1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for verification and validation of the design of oil and gas equipment in order to determine whether such equipment is capable of withstanding certain high pressure and high temperature environments (generally referred to in the oil and gas industry as the “ultra-deep high pressure high temperature” environment (“HPHT”)) that are anticipated to be experienced in the exploration, drilling, completion and production of HPHT oil and gas wells. Typically, all components of the equipment that will be subject to such HPHT environments and that either contain fluid pressure or that are important to ensure the serviceability and fitness of such equipment for such environments should be analyzed prior to the implementation of the well to ensure the success of the well. The types of oil and gas equipment typically used in such exploration, drilling, completion and production operations and that may serve as the types of equipment that are suitable for such analysis include subsurface safety valves (“SCSSV”), wellhead trees, blowout preventers (“BOP”) and wireline pressure control (“WPC”) equipment, but may also include other types of well control equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The design of oil and gas equipment for the oil and gas industry typically has involved following a process similar to the following: (i) identify the need or problem, (ii) research the need or problem, (iii) design and develop possible solutions, (iv) construct a prototype, (v) test and evaluate the solutions, and (vi) overhaul the solutions based on information gathered during the tests and presentation. In the HPHT environment, steps (iii) and (v) have been proven to be very important because of the unique environmental challenges presented by the HPHT environment. The design verification and validation process of the present invention is useful in the art because it assists designers and users of oil and gas equipment for the HPHT environment in relation to steps (iii) and (v).
It is also recognized that design verification and validation processes are well known outside of the oil and gas industry and are used to analyze pressure vessel designs for various industries. Such pressure vessel design processes are further described in ASME Section VIII, Division 3, 2010 Edition (including the 2011 Addenda). Although many of the steps described in the process of the present invention are disclosed in ASME Section VIII, Division 3, 2010 Edition (including the 2011 Addenda), the present invention, in the preferred embodiment, uses such processes to validate and verify the design of oil and gas equipment for the HPHT environment in a manner not presently practiced in the oil and gas industry. The steps of the design verification and validation process described below relate to the application of the process to certain types of oil and gas equipment used in the HPHT environment. The types of equipment suitable for analysis through such process, in the preferred embodiment, are SCSSV's, wellhead trees, BOP's, WPC and other well control equipment.